Despite
alterations, this is an important building in the history of cinema in
Scotland. The first true Odeon Theatre ever built in Scotland, where
most of the chain’s cinemas were takeovers, it is also now the only one
left.

It makes an important contribution to the streetscape of
Ayr, being one of the first buildings visible when exiting from Ayr
railway station, its landmark tower giving a focus to Burns Statue
Square.

Photos below from 1985, courtesy of Paul Francis:

Click here for a gallery of interior photos from 1983, courtesy of Jim Duncan.

Archive postcard images courtesy of Kevin Phelan.

Odeon Cinemas in ScotlandIn
the 1930s, the Odeon circuit had made its name by building a series of
modern, well-appointed buildings, starting in the south, and then
gradually expanding nationwide. However, it was struggling to gain a
foothold in the highly lucrative, but extremely cut-throat Scottish
cinema market. In sharp contrast, its great rival ABC had begun in
Glasgow under the Scottish Cinemas and Variety Theatres (SCVT) name,
and had a strong presence and purpose-built halls in most of the main
Scottish towns and cities.

Odeon initially tried to expand into
Scotland by buying up existing older buildings. In September 1936,
Odeon purchased ten cinemas from the Glasgow-based Singleton chain,
which were then re-branded as Odeons. However, many of these were far
from being the modern, luxurious “machines for watching movies in” that
the chain were famous for.

Singleton had been extremely canny,
and used the proceeds from offloading many of his substandard halls to
build new cinemas and start another new circuit of his own, adding to
Odeon’s competition!

Odeon’s growth was truly phenomenal.
Established as a circuit in 1933, by 1936 it had gone into a major
expansion. The peak year for the company was 1937, by which time the
circuit decided to not only acquire already existing cinemas in
Scotland but also to create its own highly-branded, purpose-built
venues there. Odeon had decided to do things properly, and began to
plan for its own house architects to design and build a series of true
Odeon Theatres across Scotland. At this time, the name Odeon had become
almost a generic term for cinemas, and the appearance of the cinemas
were a distinctive feature of the brand, with liberal use of faience
tiling, towers and streamlining. Showing how seriously this approach
was being taken, a new company Odeon (Scotland) Ltd. was formed, and
house architect Andrew Mather’s practice even set up a branch office in
Glasgow to oversee the schemes. Initially, seven cinemas were planned,
for Ayr, Bridgeton, Falkirk, Hamilton, Motherwell, Partick and
Townhead. Of these, only three were ever completed: Ayr opened on 30th
July 1938, Hamilton on 14th November 1938, and Motherwell on 3rd
December 1938. Bridgeton was reportedly under construction at the
outset of war, but was never completed.

Of the three, Hamilton and Motherwell
were very similar in design, featuring low rectangular facades covered
in cream faience, with a squat tower feature on the left. Both facades
were somewhat dwarfed by the bulk of the auditorium block behind, and
although relatively plain, the architecture of these two cinemas was
probably enough to stand out amongst the heavy industry which dominated
most Lanarkshire towns. Motherwell was demolished in 1996, and Hamilton
in 1999, leaving Ayr as the only survivor.

Architect BackgroundOdeon
tended to use one of two architects firms for its buildings: the firms
of Andrew Mather, or Harry Weedon. Mather worked together with Weedon
to devise and controlled the Odeon “house style”. The Scottish Odeons,
although usually credited to Andrew Mather himself, were actually
designed by another member of his practice, Thomas Braddock. Braddock
had worked closely with both Mather and Weedon on the what was
considered the most important Odeon ever built: the Leicester Square
flagship cinema for the circuit. Braddock was intimately involved in
drawing up the final scheme of this seminal building.

Building DescriptionAyr’s
Odeon was totally different from its two Scottish brothers and is an
excellent streetscape building for its era. In contrast to the plainer
Lanarkshire cinemas, Ayr was a bustling seaside resort, and needed an
architectural statement more appropriate to this backdrop.

The
composition is typical for later Art Deco architecture with a strong
emphasis on the horizontal and vertical elements of the building. The
building is symmetrical with a long, low frontage, with flanking shops
on either side of the cinema entrance in the middle, under the tall
central tower feature. While the shops front onto the street line the
cinema entrance curves inward away from it, providing a greater and
more welcoming area outside in which patrons could assemble. The
commercial function is addressed already from the outside not only by
the instantly recognizable exterior, but also by the way the logistics
of the building work.

Circle Screen & Ceiling

Octagonal Odeon Clock

Circle Foyer

The main entrance block is two storeys
high with the tower reaching up an additional storey to the height of
the auditorium roof behind it. It is structured with three-dimensional
projecting bands that sweep upward from above the canopy, and the side
features sail over the parapet level where they terminate in an elegant
curve backward. The central feature is less pronounced and terminates
at the parapet. Originally, these bands were outlined in neon so that
the cinema could be seen from afar, especially at night. There was also
horizontal banding that outlined the canopy and at parapet level of the
entrance block. Odeon neon name signs were hung vertically on the sides
of the tower, and horizontally across the top, completing the
composition.

The vertical tower striations resemble Mather’s earlier Odeon in Portsmouth
from 1936, but the Ayr cinema is far less busy and much more
streamlined. The sweeping curve of the entrance area, together with the
shop units that form wings on either side, and the way the tower is
physically unconnected to the auditorium block appear to be unique
features amongst Odeon cinema designs.

The vertical entrance
block above the canopy had originally been covered in cream faience
tiles. These have since been removed, and the tower rendered over,
losing some of the detailing.

Below the canopy, across the entire
street frontage and emphasising the horizontality, was more cream
tiling that has since been replaced.

The auditorium is set back
from the foyer, and when viewed externally from the side, the roof can
be seen to be sloping down towards the screen end. Unlike a traditional
theatre, a building built purely for film did not require a fly tower,
so there was no need to have a high roof at the screen end. This also
had the benefit of reducing the volume of open space inside the
building, thus reducing heating costs.

This interesting roof
construction was visible from inside, in the way the ceiling is
segmented, and steps down towards the screen.

The Scottish
Odeons were done on a modest budget and at a modest scale compared to
the finest and largest English Odeons. The designs for Hamilton and
Motherwell seem to have suffered because of this; but at Ayr, possibly
because it was the first one to open, or perhaps because there was a
lot of competition from other fine cinemas in a seaside resort town,
architect Thomas Braddock (see below) seems to have made much more of
an effort to produce something individual and architecturally
interesting. The tower has no structural purpose and is designed purely
for show as an advertisement feature for the cinema to be seen from
great distances. This is an excellent use of the building as its own
sign - commercial architecture at its best.

Despite the changes,
the tower remains a dramatic landmark in the town and it would not take
much to restore the exterior to its original gleaming state.

Current StatusThe
interior of the Odeon has been altered over the years, notably when the
auditorium was split into three and later four separate screens. There
are now two small screens in what was originally the rear stalls, one
in the front stalls, and one in the balcony. (Originally with 1,732
seats, it was tripled in 1987; the fourth fourth screen was added in
1992.Current seating: 388 (former circle), 371 (former front stalls),
168
and 135 (both former rear stalls).). The interior was always quite
plain however, so not a great deal has been lost. The building retains
numerous subtle original features, including the handrails on the
stairs to the balcony from the main foyer, balustrades in the balcony,
curving plasterwork detailing on the balcony foyer ceiling, some light
fixtures on the ceiling, and even, at the very back of the balcony, an
internally illuminated octagonal Odeon circuit clock. While the foyer
itself has been modernised over the years, it likely that original
features such as cornicing and other plasterwork still survives above
modern suspended ceilings.

Except
for the removal of the faience tiles from the entrance block and the
resulting loss of detail, the exterior is very much as it originally
built. The current blue tiles at ground level, while an unfortunate
part of the current Odeon branding, would be easily replaceable.

Special InterestDuring
his lifetime, Oscar Deutsch built 140 cinemas throughout the UK. Atwell
describes the instantly recognizable Odeon architecture as “among the
best of any commercial buildings put up between the wars”. The Ayr
cinema is the single surviving Odeon in Scotland, and was from the
beginning one of only three ever to have ever been built here. Under
the supervision of house architect Andrew Mather, it was designed by
Thomas Braddock, who was also responsible for the circuit’s flagship
cinema on Leicester Square (together with Harry Weedon and Andrew
Mather). While Ayr’s structure has been somewhat altered over the
years, it still definitely retains the unique Odeon look.

It
is of more than regional importance as the only remaining,
purpose-built Scottish Odeon, despite the fact that the original design
has been somewhat compromised over the years. The compromises –
especially to the exterior – have the potential to be easily rectified.